Tool for joining metal-strap ends.



E. E. FLORA & J. P. MURPHY. TOOL FOR JOINING METAL STRAP ENDS. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 2, 1913. 1,084,985, Patented Jan.20,1914.

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4 iWilli mun I: jmenins E. E. FLORA & J. P. MURPHY. TOOL FOR JOINING METAL STRAP ENDS. APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 2, 1913.

1,084,935., Patented Jan. 20, 1914.

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UNITED STATES PATENT QFFIGE.

ELLSWORTH E. FLORA AND JOHN F. MURPHY, OF. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNORS TO THE SEAL & FASTENER 00., OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF DELA- WARE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

TOOL FOR JOINING METAL-STRAP ENDS.

Application filed September 2, 1913. Serial No. 787,709.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that we, ELLSWORTH E. FLORA and J OHN F. MURPHY citizens of the United States, residing at (ihicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Tools for Joining Metal-Strap Ends, of which the following is a specification.

The present invention relates to an improved construction of tool for joining mutually-overlapping metal straps or strips by crimping them edgewise into infolding contact, thereby locking the parts against relative movement.

The method of forming the joint thus referred to is the subject of Letters Patent of the United States No. 1,038,108, granted September '10, 1912; and the present tool is an improvement on the tool set forth in Letters Patent of the United States No. 1,038,109, also granted on that date.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 shows the improved tool, with the jaws in their normally-open condition, by a broken view in front-elevation; Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the jaws closed; Fig. 3 is a view of the tool in side elevation; Fig. 4 is an enlarged section on line 4, Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is a broken and partly sectional enlarged view of the head-portion of the tool with the jaws open and the work in place between them to be crimped; Fig. 6 is a similar view showing the jaws closed upon the work to complete the joint; Fig. 7 is a plan view,

partly sectional, showing the head with the jaw in the condition represented in Fig. 6, and Figs. 8 and 9 are, respectively, an edge view and a back viewshowingstrap-ends joined together by the interlocking crimps produced by the tool.

The two similar tool-handles, 10, 10 terminate at their forward ends in diagonallyextending corresponding heads 11 overlapping one another at their rear ends, where they are pivotally. connected by a bolt 12 fastened by a nut 13- on one end. To the forward ends of the heads 11 are pivotally fastened, respectively, to opposite faces of those head-ends, legs 14 overlapping one another at their forward rounded ends,

through which they are fastened together by a pivot-bolt 15, shown'to be provided with an expanded head 16 to adapt it to serve as a hammer-head for convenient use of the tool in hammering. Each leg has formed on the back of its rounded end a similar expanded jaw 17, the jaws being formed with inwardly projecting wedgeshaped lips 18 having the curved edges illustrated to adapt them to meet at their contact portions when the jaws are closed. From the center of the inner face of each jaw, beneath the lip, extends a crimpingpin 19 presenting, as its forward end, a short, rounded strap-edge engaging shoulder at the base of the beveled edge of the lip.

An anvil-like seat 20 for the work, having raised ends 21, beveled on their inner faces, and a flat center (Fig. 4) extends across the rounded ends of the arms 14: centrally between the jaws below the lips. From one, end of the seat extends a ring 23 to surround the pivot-bolt 15, and from its opposite end extends an arm 24, through which the same pivot-bolt passes to stationarily secure the seat in its central posihandles at studs 27 on their head-ends 11.

The tool is designed for use, as its more general application, in joining the overlappingends of metal straps employed about boxes. bales, and other forms of packages, and for car and other seals. 'In such use the strap-ends 28, in mutually overlapping relation, are introduced against the raised ends of the seat 20, to present their edges between the jaws and register them with the grooves shown to be formed between the lips and the pins 19. By then pressing together the handles, the lips wedge the strips to hold them against the seat-ends, causing theopposite strip-edges to enter the aforesaid grooves and be engaged by the beveled edges of the lips, which, in the initial pressure exerted upon the handles, operate to curl the strip-edges outwardly (with relation to the head of the tool) by engagement of the pins 19 under those edges and their movement in the arc of a circle. In compressing the handles, moreover, they turn the jaw-arms 14 outwardly on their pivots to move them about the central pivot 15, so that the handle-pivot 12 advances and is guided in the arm-slot 25 while the seat 20 remains stationary and stably in its centralized position between the jaws, being thus held by the pivot 12. Continued pressure upon the handles bends and cups the strips between their edge-portions into the depressed central portion of the seat, so that in the final part of the jaw-action, which closes the lips 18 together, the pins 19 force the outwardlycurled edge-portions of the strips toward each other, as represented in Fig. 6, and the parts cooperate to bulge the crimped stripsections into the shape illustrated in Figs. 8 and 9, thereby firmly locking the strips one within the other.

The leverage afforded by fulcruming the jaws and the handles on separate alining centers at 15 and 12, renders the action of the tool very easy by exerting comparatively little pressure on the handles; and that construction makes possible rendering the seat 20 stationarily centralized between the jaws, with the advantage of avoiding movement of any parts against which the work is seated while being operated upon, and which would tend to displace the work and render the joint imperfect. That construction, moreover, renders it possible to make the handles and the jaw-members respectively counterparts of each other, and thus interchangeable, whereby manufacture of the tool and assemblage of the parts are greatly facilitated.

Inasmuch as the handles, in pressing them together, overlap each other at their heads 11 adjacent to the fulcrum 12, those portions are provided with shearing edges as a convenient means on. the tool for cutting ofi, when desired, the ends of a metal strip to shorten them, as after the joint has been formed.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. A tool for joining metal strap-ends, having a pivoted pair of handles, a pair of pivoted cooperating jaws pivotally connect ed with the handles and provided with lips, crimping-pins projecting from the inner 'aw-faces, and a seat for the work extending beneath the lips between the jaws, and always equidistant from each of the same and stationary with respect to the point of pivotal connection thereof.

2. A tool for joining metal strap-ends, having a pivoted pair of handles, a pair of jaws pivoted together with their pivot alining with the handle-pivot, said jaws being provided with lips and with arms pivotally connected with the handle-ends, crimpingpins projecting from the inner jaw-faces, and a seat for the work extending beneath the lips between the jaws, and always equidistant from each of the same and stationary with respect to the point of pivotal connection thereof.

3. A tool for joining metal strap-ends, having a pair of handles provided with heads on their forward ends at which they are pivoted together and spring-connected, a pair of jaws pivoted together with their pivot alining with the handle-pivot, said jaws being provided with lips and with arms pivotally connected with the handle-heads, crimping-pins projecting from the inner jaw-faces, and a seat for the work extending beneath the lips between the jaws, and always equidistant from each of the same and stationary with respect to' the point of pivotal connection thereof.

4. A tool for joining metal strap-ends, having a pivoted pair of handles, a pair of jaws provided with lips and with arms at which they are pivoted together, the jawpivot alining with the handle-pivot and said arms being pivotally connected with the handles, crimping-pins projecting from the inner j aw-faces, and a seat for the work having an arm on one end fastened by the jawpivot to extend the seat transversely across said handle-ends beneath said lips and between the jaws, and always equidistant from each of the same and stationary with respect to the point of pivotal connection thereof.

5. A tool for joining metal strap-ends, having apivoted pair of handles, a pair of pivoted jaws provided with lips and with arms at which they are pivoted together, the jaw-pivot alining with the handleivot and said arms being pivotally connecte with the handles, crimping-pins projecting from the inner j aw-faces, and a seat-for the work having an arm on one end fastened by the jawpivot to extend the seat transversely across said handle-ends beneath said lips and be tween the jaws and always equidistant from each of the same and stationary with respect to the point of pivotal connection thereof, said arm containing in its rear end a slot in which the handle-pivot is reciprocably confined.

6. A tool for joining metal strap-ends, having a piyoted pair of handles, a pair of pivoted jaws provided with lips and with arms at which they arepivoted together, the jaw-pivot alining with the handleivot and said arms being pivotally connect with the handles, crimping-pins projeeting from the of the same and. stationary with respect to inner j aW-faces beneath the lips, and a seat the point ofpivotalconnection thereof. for the Work depressed between. ends, Said E A.

seat having a ring and an armin its opposite JOHN E MURPHY ends through which the jaw-pivot passesto extend the seat transversely across said In presence ofhandle-ends beneath said lips and between A. C. FISCHER, the jaws and always equidistant from each O. G. AvIsUs. 

